Not able to open the Hard drive but PC registers that it is connected

[Jonas T]

Hey

So my old computer crashed but I managed to save the most important stuff onto my external hard drive. I bought a new computer but I have problems with finding the external hard drive when I connect it. My new computer has windows 8. My external hard drive is a hard drive from intenso and it is only 1 year old. It has not been dropped or anything so it should be fine.

The last transfer, when I was transferring files from my old computer to my external hard drive, I did experience a problem with transferring some files and I disconnected my external as it was not working. The files werent important so I skipped it.

After I got my new computer I connected the external hard drive but it made some weird sounds starting up. Maybe it was making these sounds before and I was just noticing now.


Anyway here is the problem:
In my overview of devices it does not show up (See link below):



I went to Control Panel --> Devices --> USB 3.0 Device (It is in Danish but I'll translate)



What I found was that it registered that the device is there (Denne Enhed Virker Korrekt=This Unit is working Correctly)

Can anyone help me? Can the software of the hard drive be damaged from a bad transfer?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Jonas T. Would you please post a picture of Disk Management. Here's how to open it: How to access Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 to manage hard drives
See what is says there. When you disconnected the drive while you were transferring files, this might have damaged the data and the partition and perhaps your drive has RAW format now. If this is the case you could try some of the solutions from this thread here to recover your data: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html
Or better yet, you could try to open it with Linux Live CD/USB to see if you can access it and retrieve the data.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Jonas T]

Hey Boogieman

Thanks for the reply. I have not yet tried your solution as I wanted to post the picture of disk management (with the External Hard Drive connected)



As you can see the external hard drive is not registered. Any input before I try to recover the data?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well this is not good, if it's not recognized in Disk Management, there's a good chance it might not be detected by the data recovery programs as well, you could always try though. The more concerning thing is that if the drive makes unusual noises, this might indicate that the drive has a hardware issue and might be failing. You have no luck with the Linux Live CD/USB and the solutions from the thread I've posted, then I'm afraid that the only other option you have left for data recovery is a professional solution such as a data recovery company.

Good luck. I hope you're able to retrieve your data.

 

[Jonas T]

Thanks a lot for the help. I was able to retrieve the data I needed but the Hard Drive is dead.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

I'm glad if I was able to help and that you were able to get all of your data. I'd recommend that you keep a backup from now on, at least of your most important files so that you don't risk losing your data if you get into a similar situation like this one.

Cheers.